Running 20:00 [2]
shoes: Inov Terrocs
BAOC Sprint Finals, Indian Valley.
Warm-up and cooldown runs. The overall event was great fun. 4 head-to-head races in a tournament. Really nice terrain.
Orienteering 9:13 [3] 1.2 km (7:41 / km) +45m 6:28 / km
shoes: Inov Terrocs
Race #1 Four person heat, with a mass start. best two advance.
IMy group included Tapio and new guy Torkel from Sweden. So I figured I was fast enough to advance, but I couldn't make any mistakes. Things were going very well at first. I was running clean and opened a solid lead when I caught up with the group that started 1 minute before us (including Francois). At that point, my thought was to relax and save some energy for the next heat. On the very next control, I completely blew it and ran in the wrong direction, losing over 1 minute! By the time I had figured things out, Vlad had caught me from group behind. I was sure now that my chances were over, no way Tapio would make this mistake.... But he made the exact same mistake so I lucked out. Finished behind Torkel, but still advancing.
Orienteering race 8:15 [4] 1.1 km (7:30 / km) +80m 5:30 / km
shoes: Inov Terrocs
Race #2, same format.
This time I was against Torkel, Francois, and Malcom, Jason?, so I knew advancing would take a much better run. Torkel, Francois, and myself formed a pack early, and it was tough hilly running. Eventually Francois and I pulled away. But Francois was taking the lead and I was basically following, looking for opportunties to improve. I was drifting off my line quite a bit though, and not running very clean. This sloppy technique worked out once, but would it hold for the next race ???
Francois and I took alternate routes to the final control, but in the end it was a sprint finish, with just a half second seperating us. We were both pushing hard, cause we knew our navigation was sloppy and we weren't sure if Torkel had managed to sneak ahead of us. But we both advanced.
Orienteering race 6:48 [5] 1.3 km (5:14 / km) +20m 4:51 / km
shoes: Inov Terrocs
Race #3.
This was the semifinal round. It was me, Vlad, Francois, and James Scarborough. Now my feeling was almost that I would have to run above my abilities to advance. The pace was definately fast, and while I could keep up, I was having trouble navigating at the pace. Despite a few bobbles though, I was sticking with everyone. By around control four, vlad had been dropped. I was just a few steps behind James and Francois coming into control 5, and made a better route choice than Francois to #6 that helped me stick with the group.
There were only 2 more controls then, so I decided I needed to kick hard. Control #7 looked pretty easy to attack, and I kicked past both of the other guys. But when I reached the control, the gully system was way deeper than I expected, and I lost time hesitating and figuring it out. I kicked as hard as I could to the finish, but finished a half second behind them.
Orienteering race 10:16 [4] 1.3 km (7:54 / km) +45m 6:44 / km
shoes: Inov Terrocs
Race #4 "Bronze Medal Race"
Having come in third in round 3, now I had to go head to head against just vlad, to deterime third place.
Things started well. I was running strong, and pulled away for a good lead. But my sloppy navigation style came back to get me. I was running above my navigation skills and making poor decisions. I think I was still too amped from the super fast srpint against James and Francois - I really needed to calm down a bit. A big mistake on control 3 let vlad catch up and pass me. Another mistake on #5 let vlad open a 30 second lead. For a little bit, I tried running harder, hoping to catch up but my navigation deteriorated and my legs ran out of gas. I finished the race at much more moderate (but still fast) pace about a minute behind.